Last Gang Records is a record label that was formed by Canadian music industry lawyer Chris Taylor and concert promoter Donald Tarlton in the Fall of 2003 at the Pop Montreal Music Festival.
As their music lawyer, Taylor had been working for the group Metric since the early days of 1998 and had literally "shopped" the band to over 100 record labels around the world but to no avail. He was prepared to release the album himself with his own money when he met with Tarlton. After viewing the Metric video for "Grow Up and Blow Away" (a single on a Metric album that would not be released until 2007) Donald offered to help Taylor realize his vision of introducing Metric's music to the world. They formed a joint venture company under the DKD label group Last Gang Records. Metric released their critically acclaimed Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? in the autumn of 2003, and Last Gang Records was born. The label’s second signing, Death From Above 1979, was critically acclaimed and toured around the world three times in 2004/2005 before disbanding in the fall of 2005.
Last Gang was nominated as Independent Record Label of the Year at the Canadian Music Awards in 2006.[1] Metric was nominated for a Juno Award in 2005 and albums by Tiga and MSTRKRFT won Juno Awards in 2007. A recent signing, Crystal Castles, were featured on the cover of the NME (June, 2008) and playing major festivals around the globe. The Toronto-based company also has its hands in publishing, licensing, multi-format releases, management and legal, pushing forward-thinking, progressive dance and alternative acts.[2]
"Through eight years, our DIY experiment borne of necessity has developed into a multinational entity with offices and staff around the world. Momentum with the label helped drive our evolution. We formed independent Management and Publishing divisions and Last Gang Records evolved into Last Gang Entertainment. All of this was driven by the idea of creating an independent music company that could fully support artists beyond the typical limitations of a record label – allowing us to provide expertise and infrastructure in each of these areas that meaningful contribute to sustained artistic development."[3]
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Last Gang Management is a music management company founded in 2004. Primary operations are based in Toronto and Los Angeles. Last Gang Management works in partnership with artist clients to oversee all aspects of career development, including navigating relations with record labels, music publishers, booking agents, sponsors, and other varied parties.
Current clients include Kay (Interscope), Alysha Brillinger (Lava/Universal Republic), San Sebastian (Universal), Burning Love (Deranged) and Last Gang Records recording artists Lindi Ortega, Huoratron, Modern Superstitions, and Terry Lynn.[4]
Last Gang Publishing is a music publishing company founded in 2004. Primary operations are based in Toronto and Los Angeles. Last Gang Publishing represents a wide variety of songwriters, both as a co-publisher and through client services including synch representation and royalty collection and administration. LGP is strategically partnered with leading independent music publisher Ole to provide global synch and admin representation.
Last Gang Publishing has secured synch placement in leading television shows (Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl, CSI Miami/NY), international commercial ad campaigns (Motorola, HP, Mitsubishi), blockbuster video games (Madden, FIFA 2009) and major motion picture films. LGP also acts as an independent music supervision consultancy, most providing supervision services on feature films Year Of The Carnivore and Daydream Nation.
LGP clients include Jasper G (Nelly Furtado), By Divine Right, Burning Hell and Murray Yates. LGP also represents several Last Gang Records recording artists, including, Mother Mother, Silver Starling, Magneta Lane and O’Luge.[5]
Last Gang Records has released recordings by:
Last Gang Management artists include:
Last Gang Publishing artists include: